


Spin Me in Gold

by violetcity



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Developing Relationship, M/M, Vampires, everyone is mentioned but not everyone actually has a speaking line
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-04 18:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetcity/pseuds/violetcity
Summary: Minghao’s very human family runs a shop in the city’s supernatural district. He’s a little infatuated with their newest customer.





	Spin Me in Gold

**Author's Note:**

> for svtjukebox years & years challenge! my song was [hynotised](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAoQQHK1umM)
> 
> i haven't written for svt in almost two years so this was honestly a challenge for me. i went through about 4 different plots before coming up with this one and im still not even sure it fits the song that well. i wanted this to be longer and not... as rushed and boring as it is but unfortunately i just didn't have the time. definitely not my best writing but im just proud of myself for finishing. i will come back to this fic eventually to edit. 
> 
> thank you to the mods for putting this together! and thank you to cia, pluto, and the rest of kronkdm for helping me with this fic and inspiring me to write always.

Sunlight streams through the open shop windows, casting golden light across the wood floor and shelves. Minghao moves through it slowly, checking the condition of the plants that line the shelves and keeping an eye out for any sleeping cats in the sunlight. One, the light gray cat, is perched on the countertop near the register but the other two vanished from sight an hour ago and he’s just now getting a chance to look for them.

He takes his time, straightening pots and making note of which ones he needs to have Mingyu look over in the morning. The baby’s breath plants look slightly droopy but unfortunately, he doesn’t have the same way with plants that Mingyu does. Continuing on, he moves to the rows of shelves that house the potion bottles. Blue and gold concoctions glitter in the sun in bottles of various shapes and sizes. He pulls old ones off the shelves and puts them into his messenger bag, deciding that his roommates can probably find some use for them.

The path he takes through the shelves puts him at the front door of the shop and there, in the small entrance seating area, his other two cats are curled up on one of the antique sofas in a mess of orange fur. Neither of them raises a head as he passes by on his way to the door—an old wooden thing with a small glass window on the front. In the window hangs the sign that indicates whether the shop is open or closed. Minghao flips it so the “closed” side shows to the outside.

“You know there’s still like fifteen minutes till the store closes right?” A smooth voice interrupts the silence of the room.

Turning on his heels, Minghao looks down an aisle of shelves back towards the counter. Sat on top of the counter, leaning back on his hands with his head cocked to the side is Junhui. The gray cat that was there before is nowhere to be seen.

“Must you always take the form of my cat? Where is he?” Minghao asks, rolling his eyes and heading back towards the counter. _Shapeshifters._  

Junhui waves off the comment. “Somewhere in the back. Probably looking for the catnip plant you keep in the supply room.”

“Did you need something or are you just here to bother me and tell me how to run my store?” Minghao asks with no bite to his words. He tosses his bag at Junhui’s chest and a familiar, lazy smile spreads across Junhui’s lips as he discovers the contents.

They’ve been friends long enough for Junhui to know when Minghao is kidding and for Minghao to know that Junhui will do just about anything to get Minghao to give him free potions. The agreement is that Minghao gives Junhui and their other roommate, Seokmin, old potions that won’t sell as long as he isn’t the one that has to clean up the mess. If he comes home to find Seokmin levitating in the middle of the living room, it’s not his problem.

Sometimes, Minghao wonders if being the only human in his friend group is really a good idea. Not that he really had a choice, considering the magic shop was his family’s business, but at some point, the lines between customer and friend had been blurred with several of his regulars. He probably knows a little more about the underground world than any other human on this side of the river.

Junhui pulls one of the gold bottles out of Minghao’s bag and raises an eyebrow in question. Minghao opens his mouth to explain that it’s a sleep aid potion but is interrupted by the soft ding of the bells above the shop door. The raised eyebrow on Junhui’s face seems to get higher as he looks at Minghao with a look that says, _“I told you so.”_

“Sorry,” Minghao says, turning to look over his shoulder, “we’re closed for the day.”

“Oh,” says a voice, breathy and unfamiliar. Stepping out from the row of shelves is a boy with shaggy brown hair that stops just above his eyes and clothes that look like a beachside tie-dye shop threw up on them. He seems to be around the same age as Minghao—in his early twenties, maybe—but the way the sun reflects off his widened eyes is somewhat childlike as he takes in the decorations of the shop. There’s a glint of something in his mouth when he talks but Minghao can’t quite make it out.

“I just need to pick up an order for a friend. I promised I would pick it up earlier this week but then I forgot and I’m supposed to see him tonight so I _really_ need it.” The boy rambles on, not once mentioning _whose_ order he’s picking up and Minghao exchanges a look with Junhui.

“Kid,” Junhui says softly, cutting him off, “what’s the name for the order?”

He coughs awkwardly as if just realizing he’d been rambling. “Chan. Lee Chan.” He says, offering a small smile.

And there, Minghao sees for sure what he thought he saw earlier while the boy was talking. A pair of elongated canines with the points just barely hidden by the boy’s lower lip. He’s a vampire—newly turned if his reaction to the shop is anything to go by.

Junhui hops off the counter and disappears into the back of the shop, leaving Minghao to come up with something to say to him.

“Are you new around here…” Minghao trails off, hoping the boy will pick up on the fact that he’s asking for a name indirectly.

“Vernon.” He laughs and runs his tongue over the fangs in his mouth. “Funny how a wrong turn can change your life forever, right?”

 _Literally forever,_ Minghao thinks.

“Chan kind of saved my life. Which is why I’m here picking this up for him.”

Minghao racks his brain, trying to remember what Chan had looked like. Then it hits him. Chan is the kid that always comes in with Jeonghan, the leader of one of the smaller vampire clans in town. Jeonghan would never let one of his own turn someone but he did have a habit of picking up newly turned kids and giving them a place to stay.

“I’m sorry for keeping you here past closing,” Vernon says when Minghao doesn’t respond.

“It’s fine,” Junhui says, emerging from the back with a small, paper bag in hand. “Technically, he isn’t closed for another ten minutes.”

Vernon beams and takes the bag from Junhui. “I should get going. Thank you!”

 

 

“Jeonghan is gonna have his hands full with that one,” Minghao says sometime later when the shop is finally closed and clean. He holds the shop door open for Junhui and then locks it behind them.

“He seems like a good kid.” Junhui skips forward a few steps and turns so he’s walking backward. “You can ask Jeonghan more about him at Soonyoung’s.”

Minghao groans, remembering the last time they attended one of the Soonyoung’s dinners. A friend group made up of mostly supernatural beings plus fae drinks almost always ended in disaster. And Minghao, being the one human, was almost always the soberest person in the room.

“You forgot, didn’t you?” Junhui asks, a smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth. “He and Seungkwan just moved into that new apartment. It’s supposed to be more of a housewarming party than anything else.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Minghao shakes his head. Soonyoung and party in the same sentence never ended well.

“It’ll be _fun_ ,” Junhui whines, taking Minghao’s hand and pulling him forward.

The underground district in their city isn’t huge so it’s easier just to walk to Soonyoung’s place. Though, if Minghao had been alone, he probably would have driven.

Despite the fact that he practically grew up there, he’s always found the district to be a little intimidating. Brightly lit by neon signs, with a surplus of small alleys and street vendors selling charms or spells, it was easy to feel out of place when he first started visiting regularly with his dad. After taking over the shop a year before, he began feeling more comfortable as he got to know his customers but, every once in a while, the feeling would gnaw just at the back of his mind.

They have to stop occasionally for Minghao to greet regular customers and give updates about orders but with Junhui pulling him along, it takes practically no time for them to reach the apartment building. It’s nothing special, a little old, but everything in the district is old.

Inside, everyone is already there, sans Mingyu and Seokmin. Minghao makes a note to himself to ask Mingyu if he’s finally asked Seokmin to be his boyfriend yet. A pink head of hair pops out from what Minghao assumes to be the kitchen, interrupting Minghao’s thought and waving him over.

“You guys made it!” Soonyoung says, eyes turning to crescents and cheeks scrunching up as he smiles. It’s always been hard to tell if it’s the fae blood or if Soonyoung is really just that charming but Minghao always finds himself smiling back.

“This is a nice place,” Junhui replies. And it is.

The furniture is older—probably thrifted—and all the pieces don’t exactly match but there’s enough space for everyone in their group to sit. It’s bigger than their last place and Soonyoung has already started populating the free space with plants in various sizes. One of the things Minghao had always liked about Soonyoung was his love for plants, one that they shared. Whenever Mingyu couldn’t make it to the shop to help, Soonyoung was always his next choice when he needed someone with plant magic.

Seungkwan’s touch on the place is a little harder to find until Soonyoung lets them go back to the center of the living room to sit down. On the mantle sits several picture frames crowded with polaroid pictures of their friends. A few of them are good pictures, where everyone is smiling and posing, but most of them are just random pictures of their hangouts. There’s one of Soonyoung kissing Jihoon’s cheek and one of Jeonghan pretending to bite Seungcheol.

Minghao sits on the old leather couch, pressed between Junhui and Seungkwan. Junhui leans across Minghao’s lap to tap Seungkwan on the shoulder.

“Heard you guys got a new clan member.”

“Who told you that?” Seungkwan hisses. Most clans don’t introduce new members until a couple of weeks after they’re turned for safety reasons.

“Uhh…” Junhui elbows Minghao lightly in the side. “What was that kid’s name?”

“Vernon.”

“God, Vernon.” Chan pipes up from on the other side of Seungkwan. “I told him not to tell anyone!”

“In his defense, he only mentioned your name. Not his clan.”

Chan sighs and Seungkwan barks out a laugh before saying, “I’ll just tell him even that’s off limits when he gets here.”

It shouldn’t surprise Minghao that Vernon is on his way. Especially when Jeonghan likes to keep an eye on his newer clan members but he still chokes a little. On the walk over, he had caught himself thinking a little too much about Vernon. He’s interesting, Minghao thinks, and _pretty_ if Minghao’s being completely honest.

  


Vernon shows up later than Minghao expects him to—almost forty minutes later, when he’s forgotten about Vernon coming at all and is in the middle of a conversation with Joshua. Then Vernon walks through the door, still wearing his tie-dye hoodie, and Minghao completely loses his train of thought.

Introductions are done by Jeonghan and Vernon smiles when he makes eye contact with Minghao. Minghao attempts to smile back, hoping that blush creeping onto his cheeks isn’t too noticeable. Once introductions are over—Minghao being the last one actually—he turns back to Joshua to continue their conversation but Joshua is gone. And when Minghao faces forward again, he finds Vernon making his way over.

“You didn’t mention that you know Jeonghan!” Vernon says, offering a hand to Minghao. He pulls Minghao into an awkward bro hug and Minghao kind of wishes he could die on the spot. He definitely tries to ignore how surprisingly good Vernon smells.

“To be fair, you didn’t mention that either,” Minghao says making Vernon laugh. Vernon’s laugh literally sounds like _“ha ha ha”_ and Minghao finds himself laughing too.

It’s funny how easily he and Vernon fall into conversation. Part of that, Minghao thinks, can be attributed to the fact that they know they have friends in common. But there’s also the fact that everything about Vernon is so modern and _human._ His other friends aren’t old per se but many of them have been alive for much longer than Minghao and it’s just one of the things about their lives that he doesn’t truly _get._

“Tell me about your shop,” Vernon says when they’re all sat at the dining table. Minghao had expected Vernon to sit next to Seungkwan or Chan but he had made a point to sit between Minghao and Wonwoo.

“It started with my grandfather—“

“Your grandfather was a dick,” Wonwoo interrupts. As one of the fae people in their group, Wonwoo is one of the oldest. It still baffles Minghao that Wonwoo had known his grandfather.

“He was,” Minghao agrees. Vernon raises an eyebrow in question. “He wasn’t a terrible person or anything like that. He was just one of those people that’s a little rude for no reason, you know?"

Vernon laughs, short and through his nose and nods.

“Anyway,” Minghao continues, “My grandfather married a fae woman. She’s the one who taught him how to make potions and minor spells. They couldn’t have children so they adopted a human child—my father—and passed the shop on to him. And he passed it on to me.”

“But you’re a human right?”

“You don’t need magic to make potions or some of the more minor spells. Just lots of practice.”

The childlike wonder from earlier has returned to Vernon’s eyes as he listens to Minghao talk. It’s cute and Minghao stumbles over his words, especially when Vernon laughs or smiles and shows his fangs. He continues to ask questions about the plants in the shop and the types of potions Minghao can make until Minghao is completely out of answers.

“What about you?” Minghao asks. “How were you turned?” It might be a slightly insensitive question but Vernon hadn’t seemed too secretive about it at the shop earlier so Minghao takes his chances.

“I actually knew Seungkwan before this happened,” Vernon says, running his tongue over his fangs. “One of the other clans must have thought I was already a vampire in Jeonghan’s clan and when I accidentally set foot on their territory, they decided to get rid of me.”

Disputes over territory aren’t uncommon in the underground and vampire clans were always the worst offenders. Vernon hadn’t been kidding when he said a wrong turn changed his life. Minghao is almost certain he wouldn’t have been able to handle getting turned as well as Vernon seemed to be.

“It’s okay though. Vampires are kinda sexy, don’t you think?” Vernon laughs and bares his teeth a little.

 _Yep, Vernon is handling this way better than I could,_ Minghao thinks as the back of his neck heats up. It isn’t actually sexy but Vernon is so endearing and Minghao knows he’s had a permanent blush on his face since they started talking.

Vernon launches into a tangent about how actual vampirism is nothing like the books make it out to be, talking quickly and with his hands. It’s cute the way Vernon talks and how he interrupts himself by laughing at his own jokes. At some point, Minghao catches Junhui’s eyes across the table and Junhui raises an eyebrow. Minghao wants to think it means nothing but he can’t. He never pictured someone like Vernon being his type but here he is, listening intently to Vernon speak with a small smile on his face.

He’s absolutely whipped already. He knows it. Junhui knows it. And apparently, Seungkwan knows it too. 

 

 

“You could just ask him out, you know,” Seungkwan says later that night. Vernon left with Jeonghan and Chan a half an hour earlier. Minghao hadn’t realized he spent all night talking with Vernon until Jeonghan dragged Vernon away from the conversation. “You’re his type.”

He’s still sitting at the dining room table in Seungkwan and Soonyoung’s apartment, head in his hands while Junhui and Seungkwan interrogate him over his newest crush.

“Please don’t say that,” Minghao begs, heels of his hands pressed to his eyes. “Shouldn’t he be like, coming to terms with how his entire life has changed? Pretty sure that doesn’t leave much room for dating.”

“He could probably use the distraction.” Junhui shrugs.

“ _One_ date,” Seungkwan says, holding up a finger.

“Seriously, dude. I haven’t seen you that interested in someone in years.” Junhui adds. Minghao thinks that’s bullshit. He’s been plenty interested in other people since he and Junhui met. Maybe not as quickly as with Vernon but _still_.

Seungkwan continues to look at him with one finger raised and eyes that don’t look like he’s going to give up anytime soon.

“ _Fine._ Fine. One date.” Minghao agrees. “But you’re setting it up.” He looks pointedly at Seungkwan. He’s not going to embarrass himself by asking Vernon out only to get rejected. “Only if he agrees.”

Seungkwan smiles somewhat devilishly, fangs glinting, and Minghao almost regrets agreeing. 

 

 

Vernon agrees to the date much to Minghao’s surprise. And partially to his dismay.

“Do I look dumb?” He asks, straightening his shirt. In the mirror, he can see Seokmin and Junhui leaning against the wall on either side of his bedroom doorway. Mingyu is laid across Minghao’s bed, cuddling a pillow.

“You need a jacket,” Seokmin says. He rifles through Minghao closest till he finds what he’s looking for and pulls out an oversized black jacket. He holds it out for Minghao to take and then falls onto the bed beside Mingyu, curling into his side. From the door, Junhui pretends to gag.

“You’re just jealous because now you’re the only one in the house without a boyfriend.” Seokmin teases.

“Oh yeah? Who said I’m single?” Junhui smirks.

“You what?!” Mingyu shoots up, throwing Seokmin off his chest. Minghao snorts. “Is it the fae boy from the record shop?”

Junhui shrugs, still smirking and turns on his heels to leave. Mingyu follows him out, questions still coming in a rapid-fire until he can no longer be heard from down the hall.

“You look nice,” Seokmin says, still giggling slightly and drawing Minghao’s attention back to the original situation. “Tell me about _him_.”

“I don’t know too much about him yet,” Minghao confesses. “When we talked last week it was mainly just about my shop and some pop culture stuff.”

Seokmin nods, encouraging Minghao to keep going. As usual, when it comes to talking to or about Vernon, Minghao can feel the blush that creeps up the back of his neck and across his cheeks.

“He’s interesting.” It comes out sounding more like a question than a statement. “Goofy, I guess. Not dumb but really funny. The way he phrases stuff can be a little weird sometimes but it’s,” He pauses, looking for the right word. “Endearing.”

Seokmin coos. “Aw, he sounds cute!”

“He is,” Minghao agrees. Damn, he really doesn’t want to fuck this up. “I’m nervous.”

“He agreed to go on a date with you. I think that’s a good indication that he’s into you too.”

 

 

Vernon picks Minghao up at exactly six in a shitty, silver 2005 Honda Accord. Somehow, it’s exactly what Minghao expected Vernon to drive. Complete with the assortment of bobbles hanging from the mirror inside.

“Your car sucks,” Minghao says through the open window of the passenger side before yanking open the door. Vernon throws his head back against the driver’s seat and laughs. It’s the dumb “ _ha ha ha”_ laugh again—the one Minghao now knows to be completely genuine. Some of the tension in Minghao’s shoulders dissolves.

“Thank you,” Vernon says, still laughing. “Though, you might want to apologize before it decides to break down on our way to the restaurant.” This time it’s Minghao’s turn to laugh as he awkwardly pats the dashboard in front of him.

The drive the restaurant is quiet but not awkward. It’s starting to get darker outside earlier and the light of the day turns to a golden color as they ride. It washes the car in soft light and Minghao finds himself studying the way it dances along the high points of Vernon’s face. Vernon is singing softly with some song Minghao doesn’t know on the radio, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel. The sleeves of his jean jacket are just slightly too long, muffling the sound a little.

At some point, when they’re stopped at a stop light, Vernon catches Minghao staring. “What?”

“Was thinking about how pretty you are,” Minghao confesses. He isn’t sure where the confidence comes from—if he’s just that comfortable with Vernon now or if it came from somewhere else—but it’s worth saying. Vernon is the one who blushes this time as he smiles shyly. It’s then that Minghao notices he can’t see Vernon’s fangs. “You learned to retract your fangs!”

Vernon’s smile gets wider. “Yeah, Seungkwan finally taught me how.” The light turns green before anything else can be said and they lapse back into comfortable silence until they get to the restaurant.

It’s not very fancy, just a small diner, but apparently one of Vernon’s favorites. And Minghao’s too as he’s quick to tell Vernon.

“I missed this place so much,” Vernon says as they’re being seated. He waits for the very human waitress to leave before he continues, “When I didn’t know how to retract my fangs I couldn’t leave the underground district.”

Minghao nods. While some human families like his knew about the underground and it’s inhabitants, the supernatural was still kept a secret from most. He remembers something Vernon mentioned at Soonyoung’s dinner. “You said you knew Seungkwan before you were turned. How’d that happen?”

“Childhood best friends. When he got turned, he couldn’t stand to keep it a secret from me.”

“And now you’re both vampires.”

“And now we’re both vampires, yeah,” Vernon echoes. “He really helped a lot though. I’m moving in with him and Soonyoung as soon as Jeonghan lets me. When you come over in the future you can teach me the names of all Soonyoung’s plants.”

 _When you come over._ Minghao’s brain short circuits a little. Seokmin had said Vernon was probably interested in him but the words hadn’t really hit him until just then. When Vernon actually implied that he wanted to keep doing things with Minghao. He smiles.

“I’d love to.”

Their food arrives and everything feels slightly reminiscent of Soonyoung’s dinner. They talk more than they eat, occasionally talking through full mouths. Vernon tells Minghao about how when they were kids, Seungkwan bet Vernon five bucks he wouldn’t eat glue and Vernon did it. Minghao tells Vernon about the time when he was just learning to make potions and accidentally made a sleeping potion so strong he missed an entire week of school because his parents couldn’t wake him up. Between the stories and laughter, it takes them way too long to eat and Minghao almost feels bad for keeping the table for so long. Almost.

 

 

It’s just half past eight when Vernon pulls into the parking lot of Minghao’s apartment building. And Minghao, feeling bolder the more time he spends with Vernon asks if Vernon wants to come inside. Thankfully, both Junhui and Seokmin are out, probably with their boyfriends. Boyfriends? Minghao still isn’t sure if Junhui was being serious earlier.

“Your room looks like Soonyoung’s and Seungkwan’s apartment,” Vernon states as he walks through the door and throws himself into a beanbag on Minghao’s floor.

He isn’t wrong. Minghao’s room has more than a few plants on various surfaces. His desk and dresser tops are riddled with small pots with succulents and a few herbs. Hanging by his window are a few plants with long vines.

Minghao plops into the beanbag beside Vernon’s and Vernon shifts so he’s laying with his head practically in Minghao’s lap. He points to one of the hanging plants. “What’s that one?”

“Ceropegia woodii,” Minghao says, giggling at the way Vernon’s eyebrows raise. “String of hearts. Its leaves sometimes grow in small heart shapes.”

Vernon’s eyebrows are still raised as he looks up at Minghao. Minghao cards a hand through Vernon’s hair and asks, “What?”

“You’re cute.” Vernon’s lips turn up into a smile, tongue poking through his teeth. Minghao’s heart stutters.

“You’re a dork and I’m going to kiss you now.”

The position is a little awkward for both of them but Vernon props himself up to meet Minghao’s lips halfway. The kiss soft and Vernon’s lips taste sweet like the ice cream from the diner. Warmth blooms across his chest and he wonders if kissing Vernon will always be like this. 

(It is.) 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! kudos and comments are always appreciated! 
> 
> you can find me on my fic twitter [here!](https://twitter.com/vioietcity) the account is on private but i accept most requests


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